Roger deWardt Lane forwarded the press release
for the newest edition of his book on small silver coins. He writes:

You ran a long item in October 2007 when I posted my
e-book free on the Internet for the numismatic community. I thank you.
Using print-on-demand and the Internet plus my experience with Adobe
software, I have just printed my Encyclopedia Small Silver Coins in
both hardcover and softcover editions with Lulu.com. I have pre-sold a
dozen copies of the Hard Cover Edition to my club friends and presented
the first good 'Proof' copy to my numismatic friend Steve Schor, who spent
hundreds of hours editing this edition, after the 'first bad proof' showed
them up. The experience of do-it-yourself publishing has been quite an
adventure. I may write an article on the subject.

The author
Roger deWardt Lane, has published Encyclopedia of Small Silver Coins in
two-printed versions, hardbound and soft cover. This anthology and catalog
of Modern Dime Size Silver Coins of the World with Footnotes to History
has been in preparation for many years. This publication has expanded many
details of the limited series of small silver coins of the world from
Queen Victoria to 1970. There are interesting small stories, to place
these miniature pieces of art into historical context. Over 1000 coin
illustrations have been enlarged four times for ease of viewing.

These coins had a monetary value of less than ten cents, when the
value of silver was for a hundred years about fifty cents to the ounce.
Many empires and nations issued on an annual basis millions of these
little miniature silver pieces as subsidiary coinage for their population.
Except during times of crisis or war, when species stopped being struck or
were hoarded, everywhere people traveled they received these coins in
change. Many found their way to the States, only to be saved as mementos
or souvenirs of the trip and miss the melting pot. Some eventually reached
the numismatic market place. These factors have combined to make these
coins available in our time at reasonable prices, rare types
excepted.

When this work was first started, the only date listings
originally available were in national coin catalogs of the major countries
- United States, England and British Colonies, France, Austria, Russia and
China and a few others. Around the time of the first drafts, many small
country listings and catalogs were issued. In the early 1960-70s, they
became the date checklist for the coins added to the collection of the
author.

It took many years to research, to transcribe the
inscriptions, translate the initials of names, titles, mintmarks, assay
initials or marks, and foreign legends, then to find their English
translations and expand the text with historical footnotes.

Coin
prices are not included, since world economic and political conditions as
well as collector interest constantly change the values. The easiest way
to find a value of a coin in several condition grades is to make use of
the Standard Catalog Series, issued by Krause Publications.

In the
mid-1960s computer technology became available on small PCs; so the coin
images were scanned in grayscale [looks like silver] with the files stored
on removable disks. The software used progressed from Apple to IBM,
WordStar to MS-Word. The early printed pages were produced in Adobe
PageMaker, later to be exported to Acrobat, which has been uploaded to the
printer for these editions.

This current version, 600 pages, b
& w, organized in 101 country chapters has over a thousand coin
pictures and a like number of century old clip art taken from original
history and travel books, which fill the pages with related photos, from
Afghanistan to Yemen.

As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a
thousand words, look at the preview pages offered on the publishers site
www.lulu.com and remember the other famous numismatic quote Buy the book
before the coin. Both editions are available thru the Internet and the
softcover edition may be ordered through Amazon or your local favorite
bookshop.

The 600-page 8.5" x 11", softcover version is $50. The
8.25" x 10.75" casewrapped hardcover version is $100. -Editor